After defeating the boss, I Blinked back to the orphanage and walked into the building. I told the children to come out of their rooms and opened up the kitchen. I wasn't as good as Mrs. Olfson, but I began to try cooking scrambled eggs. Before I made that mess, though, I remembered that I could buy skills from the Shop. I opened my Shop and was flabbergasted at the number of Chits I had.

Welcome to the Shop, Hector. You have 23,845 Chits.

Buy the Cook skill, please.

Error! Skill Cap reached! Blink Class prevents trading or merging skills! Skill unavailable for purchase.

Fine, then. If it was gonna be like that... I raised my voice and talked to the orphans. "Who can cook?" A seven-year-old boy who's name was Jonas Rodenstein and an eleven-year-old girl whose name was Molly Tergh stepped forward and raised their hands. I accessed the Shop and thought to it, Shop, what is the best way to teach them to cook?

The Cook Skill is available for purchase for 100 Chits. The Cook Class is available for purchase for 1000 Chits.

Great, I said, purchase the cooking class for Jonas Rodenstein and Molly Tergh. The usual beam of light descended from the ceiling, and, unlike when I received my stuff, the kids freaked out. The two designated for kitchen duty started running around screaming, which sent the rest of the kids into a panic, which lasted until I yelled, "Shut up!"

Everyone stopped running around and they all calmed down. Molly and Jonas somewhat reluctantly accepted their beams of light, and they both gasped when the notifications appeared in their vision. I ignored that and steered them over to the kitchen before telling them what to do. I might have come across as a little mean, but I had had a long day. A very long day.

Nonetheless, those two both excitedly started pulling out pots and cutting boards and such to make pasta. They were still new to cooking, but pasta was good enough. After they were done cooking, I pulled them over and asked what skills they had. They both replied that the Cook class had given them the Basic Cook skill, and they were around 40% of the way through it. That was definitely good progress for ten minutes' work. I sent them back over to wait for the pasta to rest before calling up the Shop to give me recommendations on how to protect the orphanage.

You can buy defenses in the Shop. You can upgrade the Orphanage to a Basic Base. You can get stronger. You can make other people stronger.

Those last two really weren't that helpful, but I wasn't about to tell the Shop that.

The Shop heard it anyway.

Forgot about the mind-reading. Okay, what would making the Orphanage a Basic Base entail?

Basic Base

Grade: Grade F

Rarity: Uncommon

Identifies a building or area as a Basic Base, allowing for discounts on Base-related purchases in the Shop

Price: 20,000 Chits

20,000 Chits for a Grade F item? Jeez. I decided to buy it anyway, though. If it was called a Basic Base, it probably was upgradeable into a Lesser Base, Base, etc. After I purchased it, some unexpected things happened.

First, everything started to spin. It spun round and round and round and round over and over again until I couldn't separate one blur from another blur. Then, the spinning spot. Everyone else seemed to have been untouched, as the spinning rotated around me, but I stumbled into a wall and collapsed. The ground spun again and I was reminded of what it felt like to use Blink with my eyes open. I held in my puke and stood up to the gazes of some very confused-looking kids. I stood up but immediately sat back down, winded. The kids came over to me, confused.

The second change occurred then. A notification popped up in my vision, saying:

Would you like to offer citizenship to all people within the boundaries of your Basic Base?

Yes, I thought, and the kids all gasped once more as what I assumed was a notification asking if they wanted to be citizens in my Base. I muttered, "Accept it. It'll help." The kids all gulped and agreed, all reaching up to poke an invisible screen in front of their faces. Of course, the screens weren't tactile, but the System read that their intent was to accept it. Unsurprisingly, I received a notification after that:

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16 people have become your citizens.

The third change I noticed later, but it happened at the same time. The orphanage changed. It went from being a semi-rickety, old wooden building to being twice the size and made of stone. It had a watchtower that came down a ladder into the side of the dorm.

The dorm had also changed. The bunk beds had changed from old wooden pieces of furniture to clean-looking, stable, and made of metal. The ladder to the watchtower was on the right side of the room, far enough from the beds that it was unlikely anyone would hurt themselves on it while still basically asleep.

Some rooms had been added, too. An armory now took up a solid chunk of the building but was completely empty. We would have to purchase swords and bows and guns for anyone who wanted to fight which probably just meant me. The other building was a map room. It would map as far as could be seen from the watchtower by the person who was in it. This meant that if the person who was in the watchtower has a low perception, we would not be able to see as far as with someone who had a high perception.

I turned back to the kids, now my citizens, from that notification. "Okay, make a line. Except for you two," I pointed at the two new cooks, "you already have your roles."

Coincidentally, the first person in the line was Mack. "I want to fight!" he declared confidently.

No. Absolutely not. I did not just save sixteen kids from a horde of mutilated rabbits to lose one fighting the same foe. He wouldn't take no for an answer, though. I could see it in his eyes. System, what type of ranged classes are there?

The only Tier 1 (purchasable) ranged class is Marksman.

"Fine. Shop, buy the marksman class for Mack. Is there any starting equipment for his class?" Mack cheered up when I finished talking, and I could see that he would take this seriously. "When you level up, focus your attributes mainly on control, perception, and strength, but don't neglect the others." Mack nodded and saluted to me -- not sure where he learned that -- before the light descended from the sky. Unlike his compatriots before, he took the impact with dignity, not flinching when the light hit his head. His countenance, however, did change when the notifications popped up and he saw his Class had been assigned and his equipment had been placed in his inventory. He danced off, but not before I told him to take a shift in the Watchtower. The total for that charge was 1500 Chits, but I think it was worth it. 

I welcomed the next person, a boy named Jake. He didn't know what he wanted to be, so I had to tease it out of him. He wanted to be a crafter of some sort. Thankfully, there was a crafting class. Unfortunately, when I tried to buy the Class, I got this message:

Tier 1 Classes cost 1000 Chits. You have 345 Chits.

Because simply trying again wouldn't work, I bought a sheaf of paper for 10 Chits and a box of pencils (pre-sharpened, somehow) for 5. I wrote down Jake's name and his preferred Class. I told him I would make sure to give it to him when I got enough money, he still looked rather depressed about it. I promised I would buy his own equipment when I got the chance as well, and that cheered him up much more. 

I went through the remaining twelve kids and ended up with seven Crafters, 2 Marksmen, and, believe it or not, 3 people who liked to clean and organize took the Cleaner Class. That solved a problem I hadn't even started worrying about yet. After finishing up there and storing the list in my inventory, I went to the watchtower to see what Mack knew about our surroundings.

The watchtower looked like the bell tower of a church: it rose about ten feet off the roof and had a main platform with four pillars on each corner to hold up a roof. It was quaint, honestly, and quite pretty too. The view was kind of crappy though.

What was once a decently nice neighborhood had become a destroyed wreck of a town, with charred wood and blackened stone in pieces all over the place. The three houses that still stood and were in decent condition were mainly to the right of the orphanage. I even recognized one; it was the one where I fell through the roof and landed on that family. I ignored their house for now because they weren't all that nice to me. 

"Shop," I said out loud, as I made my way to the ladder, "is there a purchase for the watchtower that would alert me when someone or something attacked?"

The only thing you can afford is the "Help" Button. It installs itself in the watchtower and, when pressed, alerts the Lord and the Lord's citizens that someone is attacking. It costs 300 Chits.

"Okay, buy it." As I climbed up the watchtower, I heard a high-pitched scream and inwardly flinched. I had forgotten Mack was up there and chose to Blink to the top to make sure he didn't fall off or break the button. When my eyes opened, I saw Mack with his bow out and an arrow questionably nocked on the bow. I darted over and grabbed the arrow before he could launch it, and he lowered his bow.

"What is that, Hector? It appeared from nowhere!" Mack ran and hid behind me, and I inwardly sighed again. I forgot that he was so young. I hoped he could handle this. Crap.

"Mack, calm down. It's a 'help' button. When you see someone attack, you push it and it alerts everyone, okay? I need you to watch for any danger and push it if you see anybody or anything coming, okay?" Mack nodded and I sighed in relief. 

"Where will you be?" he asked, as he flopped down next to the button.

"Well, I need more Chits to buy more Classes." I smirked. "I'm going hunting."